Chapter 140

Chapter 140
Warning: The following chapter may contain content that some readers may find sensitive. I recommend reading with discretion. It may contain: aggressive language, use of firearms, insinuations of abuse, psychological abuse, death, etc.

Elenna Valehart.

I had always known how to recognize when a door was closing.
Some doors warned you—they creaked, they groaned, they made noise.
Others, the dangerous ones, closed in silence, while you still believed you were being welcomed with honors.
That’s exactly how it felt the day I took Francesca with me to the Council.
I often wondered why I bothered bringing her everywhere, and I always remembered the answer:
not because she was useful—she wasn’t—
but because she needed to learn.
She needed to see with her own eyes how the world truly worked.
How a D’arven woman carries herself.
How someone of pure lineage enters a room without asking permission,
yet without begging for attention.
I was preparing my niece to survive—
the same way I’d been trying to prepare my son for years.
The Council, however, decided to teach me a new lesson that day.
When I arrived, I announced my name, my rank within the Council—
They refused to receive me.
At first, I thought they were simply making me wait.
But when I demanded an explanation, what I heard was a flat, bureaucratic, cowardly no.
They said the matter did not concern me.
That I had no authorization to know anything related to Andrew Hoffman.
“How dare you?” I asked, keeping my posture intact, chin lifted, concealing my real intentions and concerns.
My son was in that competition.
The Valehart name was at stake.
My blood was involved—
and still, they had the audacity to tell me I had no right to information.
Right.
What a curious word… especially when used by those who only recognize it when it benefits them.
I left the Council with the same polite smile I had entered with.
Francesca walked beside me, observing everything.
I knew she could feel the tension—you don’t grow up in a family like ours without learning to sense it in the air—
but she didn’t yet understand the full weight of that dismissal.
I understood.
And that…
that was a warning.
The Valehart family was being pushed to the margins.
The very thing I feared most—
the thing I fought my entire life to prevent—
was happening.
During the drive back to the hotel, I thought about how many powerful families had been treated the same way over the centuries.
First comes silence.
Then exclusion.
Finally… oblivion.
I would not allow that to happen to us.
After a few hours in the hotel room, I ordered Francesca to prepare tea.
An old habit I refused to abandon.
It helped me organize my thoughts while maintaining the façade of calm.
While sipping the tea, I sat back and took a slow breath.
I knew I had gone too far many times.
I knew that, to many, I had been a harsh mother.
Cold.
Perhaps even too ambitious.
But everything I did, I did thinking of my son’s future.
Of power.
Because in this world, only power makes someone untouchable.
I wanted Adrian above the rules, not beneath them.
I wanted him to understand early how things truly worked.
That’s why I took him to Council meetings.
That’s why I made him watch the hunts, the executions—
shredded bodies presented as political trophies.
Cruel?
Perhaps.
But it was our reality.
And I needed him to survive, to become strong, to preserve our lineage.
Yet he always looked at me as if I were the monster of the story.
And once he came of age, he rejected the legacy.
Chose to play at humanity while the real world kept spinning, merciless, around him.
“A foolish boy…” I murmured, brushing my graying hair back behind my ear.
I couldn’t turn back time or force him to accept his obligations.
But I also… couldn’t take his place.
Still, things could not remain as they were.
Something had to be done.
That was when the phone rang.
And I saw the name flashing on the cracked screen—
the Council.
Finally.
It was late—past midnight, actually—
and I had almost believed they would ignore me.
A nearly satisfied smile curved my lips.
They had finally realized
they could not discard the Valeharts the way they discarded the others.
“Hello? Who am I speaking to?” I answered, firm and proud.
“I imagine you’re ready to speak now.”

On the other end of the line, the voice wasn’t from any Council member I knew.
It was cold. Clinical.
“Here is the Council’s Post-Mortem Relations Department.”
I had been sitting, but the moment I heard that, my body moved on its own—
leaning forward, standing abruptly as if pulled by a string.
“Excuse me?” I asked, feeling something dark and heavy begin to climb into my chest.
“We are calling to inform you that the body of Adrian Valehart has been delivered. He lost a dispute to one of the competitors. We need a family member to come for the proper funeral procedures.”
What?
What did he just say?
The world lost all sound.
That… had to be a lie.
A tasteless joke from those humorless, grey-suited old men.
Just moments ago, I had been thinking about him… talking about him…
My hand lost all strength.
The phone slipped, hit the floor. Francesca rushed toward me the instant she heard it hit, catching me before my legs gave out completely.
“No…” I pressed a hand to my mouth as my heart twisted painfully.
“No. That can’t be right.”
My son?
Adrian?
My baby boy?
My husband’s words echoed in my mind like a belated prophecy.
When he whispered them the day before, I had felt a chill—
but I never imagined… not so soon. Not like this.
It was exactly as he said:
the Council had already chosen.
They had decided which family would hold the next Supreme Alpha title,
and it would not be ours.
Everything made sense now.
“Mrs. Elenna?” the voice insisted from the phone lying on the floor.
“We require confirmation.”
Francesca stared at me—pale, shocked, trembling just as much as I was.
I took a slow, deliberate breath.
I couldn’t fall apart.
I couldn’t show what this was doing to me.
But even as I told myself that, the pain came—deep, shattering—
and I pushed it down with all the strength I had.
Locked it away where no one could see.
I refused to let the tears fall, because to me…
this wasn’t over.
“Where is the body?” I finally asked, my voice steady again.
There was a pause.
“Ma’am, we must inform you that… special circumstances are involved. The Council is handling the case with maximum priority. You may retrieve your son’s body in Lobby 08 at the Council’s central headquarters.”
I closed my eyes; my breath trembled.
Special circumstances…
What had they done to my son?
How had they killed him?
“I understand,” I said. “I’ll be there shortly.”
I hung up.
Silence filled everything—
the room, my mind, even my heartbeat felt muted.
Francesca was the first to speak; she had heard everything.
“Aunt…” her voice cracked. “Adrian… he…”
I raised a hand, stopping her.
“No,” I said softly—soft, but lethal.
“I will not accept this.”
She swallowed hard.
I walked toward the window, staring down at the glowing city below.
I remembered the last message from the oracle—
it had been for my son.
He was the competitor destined to suffer a fatality.
And now… he was dead.
I stared at the city lights blinking in the distance, and even though I forced myself to hold everything inside, to cage every scream, every ache—
in the end, it was impossible.
The tears fell, uninvited.
I wiped my face with the back of my hand.
This would not end this way.
They had chosen the wrong side.
They had committed a grave mistake.
Because if there is anything more dangerous than an ambitious mother…
it is a mother who has lost her son and is still standing.
They might think they won.
Might believe they could discard us.
But they were the ones who didn’t understand.
I am a Valehart.
A D’arven.
And my lineage does not die quietly.
I would show them that—
even if it cost me everything I had.